The Deep 3 Podcast - 10 NBA Players Who Need To Be Talked About More | TD3 Live

Episode Date: January 15, 2025

NBA Players that deserve more attention! #nba Support the stream: https://streamlabs.com/thedeep3pod Today we react to all the latest NBA news! Check out the TD3 merch: https://the-deep-3-shop.fourthwall.com/ Join the TD3 discord!: https://discord.gg/RUkjpMPp7E Listen on Spotify!: https://open.spotify.com/show/3elbbqVumwqz8wlIdknsLW Listen on Apple Podcasts!: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-deep-3-podcast/id1657940794 Follow us on TikTok!: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedeepthree Follow us on Instagram!: https://www.instagram.com/thedeep3podcast/ Isaac's twitter: https://twitter.com/byisaacg Muhamed's twitter: https://twitter.com/Mojo99_ Donnavan's twitter: https://twitter.com/Dsmoot3D Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

y'all we're back with an a stream so welcome back to TD3 ASMR I'm joined by Donovan Smu MMI 9 how are we doing today

ew stop it I look in the chat the first thing I see I see a lot of crown emojis and I also see Nemeas Keda, my beloved. There's a lot of Nemeas Kada love going on in the chat right now.

One guy's spamming his name. Shout to Nemeas Bailita. The only thing I know about Nemeas. It's a different person, but okay. Shout out everybody's here early in the stream. Spamming the same stuff as always. Appreciate you guys. So what the fuck guys turned into?

They came in and they hear the mo just making all the worst noises, don't know what a man? I've never heard a man chewed a grown man chew gum before. So what's up to that? That's how you chew gum with your fucking teeth and with your tongue? All fast. How fast? Yeah, just, you know.

Breast still smelling. Welcome back to the stream. Welcome back to this week's live episode. As you guys see by the title, today we're going to be discussing NBA players that need more attention. players that are either surprising us this season doing better than we thought or just whatever it means to you players who are doing good right now

but aren't necessarily getting the attention they deserve yes certainly let's talk about underrated as players and players who've been cooking hell as of late too this is a good amount of names that we all have yeah so again we'll talk about that later we'll get to that during the normal second half of the stream

first half though we got to talk about the biggest news stories as always first one that came today which is I was going to say is big but it's really not big anymore it's honestly we're beating a dead horse at this point but but he's star Jimmy Butler told Pat Riley in a face-to-face meeting with the team that he wants to be traded

and will not sign a new deal with the Miami Heat is also reported that he is going to play once the suspension end so he's not going to hold out or like say I'm completely done but he's made it very clear that he will not be here next year we have three weeks three weeks to make it through

and then all of this will have its resolution because at this point I'm tired of it. I think like, like you said, at this point, we're just, like, beating a dead horse. I need either Pat Riley needs to make a move or Jimmy sit out, right? I don't need to see Jimmy Butler playing on the floor when it is very clear that, like, that relationship is not going to go anywhere. And if that reporting is true, which I don't believe that it's not,

it would be so wild if Pat Riley did not trade Jimmy Butler and stood even firmer, on whatever principle that he wants to claim and not get any assets back for a 35-year-old star who you can get at least something for. So I'm very curious to people. It kind of feels like he might not get traded right now just like reading the T-leys of reporting.

The warriors are apparently out unless they're posturing, which I guess they could be. But I don't think so for reasons we'll get too later. The sons would love to get them unless Brad Biel is going to be a saint and just decide to give the sons what they want. I don't know if that's going to happen.

There's been zero reporting of other teams being interested for the most part from, like, reputable sources. And, of course, a team can come out of the woodworks and swooping and get them will never know until it happens. But it feels real dry for the Jimmy Trade Market. Yeah. I just hope it happens. I'm on the same page as Donovan.

We all hope it happens, obviously. I think it's going to be one of those situations, Isaac, that we're the most random team out of the woodworks comes up and swoops him up for the low fucking watch it, watch it be, I don't know, the most random team that you think, that you can think of like the Indiana Pays. acers give a band and math running like whatever they've been linked to a lot of wings they've been linked

to a lot of wings that wouldn't be that crazy that would be really interesting that would be a great basketball fit would they win probably not but would they make them better as a team hell yeah what would they i mean that's a lot of salary to keep up i don't mean how do they even get there i guess it'd have to be see huckerman uh miles turn which i don't yeah i don't know if that makes They have to give a, he makes $40 a year. Wait, who does? Jimmy. Miles Turner?

No, Jimmy is $43 million. I don't know if, I don't know if the Pacers can put together that much salary. Obie got to go. Everybody got to go. They have four players, too. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, if Pascal's out the door, it doesn't make sense. It only, you, yeah, you would only do it if you can have that trio of Tyrese, Jimmy, and Pascal.

Someone said Jimmy to the wolves. Chad, where do you guys want to see him go? It seems like if it's going to happen, it's going to be a team we don't expect, or the Suns. So if it's a team we don't expect, what do you guys, where do you guys want that to beach at? Let's know what they're saying. Listen, you know, you guys know who I, I just keep clamoring for them to make a trade. The Detroit Pistons. You want them to get everybody.

Ew. You've known this about me for a long time. I am low-key, a supporter of the Detroit Pist. I just want them to be good. I want them to keep moving. been in the great direction that they're on right now. And I think that a Jimmy trade, it could be helpful.

It could be helpful for what they got to know. I guess. I don't want that at all. Yeah, it's kind of gross. I won't want that either. I don't know. This is a very, it's interesting because it's a trade

and there's no other stars currently being traded right now. So I hope it happens, but the market is looking slimmer and slimmer by the day. So I'm kind of not getting my hopes up that this is going to end in an interesting way. I just want to see it happen already.

Speaking of, we're talking about the trade. market. The Golden Day Warriors have been in the news regarding trades as of the past few days. For all the wrong reasons, Draymond Green went on his podcast and said he doesn't think, he said him, Steph, and Steve Kerr are all in agreeance that they should not make a win-now move if it mortgages their future. He said that's what bad franchises do and we're not going to be a bad franchise. And Steve Kerr came on today and he said, I probably won't be around, but I would tell you, if this organization gave away the next six or seven drafts for

a wild swing, that would be the most irresponsible thing they could do. y'all these motherfuckers are not going to make a move these motherfuckers are content with step kerry riding out going out sad like dirk did they want to be mid on purpose and it seems like they're doing nothing about it how do you feel about these comments these comments are beyond irritating not even as like a warrior friend but just a fan of basketball fan of step kerry someone who wants to see one of the greatest players probably one of the greatest 10 players of all time have another swing another chance at winning. Will anyone ever favor them as championship contenders?

Even if they had someone like, I don't know, a Larry Markner or a Jimmy Butler, maybe not, who knows? But they would sure or so have a chance. It would immediately be one of the scarier teams to play in the playoffs. And Stuccur would have a chance. We would get to see him in the playoffs. We would get to see him in the second round in the Western Conference finals. But instead, right now as they speak, we won't see any of that.

They're the 12th seed. They're one of the worst teams in the West. I think that Draymond Green probably wants to be in the assistant GM in a couple of years or is a minority stake involved coming pretty soon because the way that these guys have been just convinced that seven years from now is what matters and not the couple years left they have

of Steph Curry's career is insane to me. And granted, I mean, they're the players, it's their opinion, they can think whatever they want. I think they have been fed a mindset about this team and sold a dream that they're going to be good once Steph's gone, good once Tremont's gone. And they've chosen to believe. it because they're for the team they're loyal to the soil they've been there forever they fully

believe in joelike was vision because they're inside the doors and how could they not and i think it's fucking insane and once they retire and look back they're gonna be like what the hell are we talking about irritating is the perfect word mo that that you use because i i like i heard these comments and it really had me thinking like what what are we in this for right are we in it for championships actually or are we in it just to have fun because the idea that you would not give up future draft assets or future whatever to go make a run right now and potentially have a chance. Whereas you know the moment Steph Curry leaves, okay, we're going to be at the ground zero. We're going to have to build this thing again from

the ground up. Regardless if you had picks or not, that's where you're going to be at. So you just kind of want to have a good time right now and just make sure that like it's always like even killed but the craziest thing about that is that nobody's having a good time you guys suck either you guys you guys you guys suck either way so you're not getting the championship and you're not even having like oh we were a fun you know 44 win team oh i love that era of the warriors no y'all suck and you don't really bother me about this too they're in in their way of defending the front office which i mean to a certain extent they have to do that they're not going to come out and be like actually i think they're dumb and we should make a trade so naturally they're going to say

what they're going to tow the company line you know, but the way that it bothers me is that they're kind of treating the fans that they're idiots and they're arguing a false premise. Steve Ferner in this quote said, if the organization gave away the next six or seven drafts for a wild swing,

nobody is saying this next six or seven drafts. Nobody is saying trade four first round picks and three swaps like it's a Kevin Durant trade to the Sons. Nobody has ever argued that. It's been do something, not do literally every asset gone because

that trade isn't on the market. A Kevin Durant isn't available. The real realistic possibilities is trade like one or two first-round picks and a young guy for Jimmy Butler, which is nowhere close to the six or seven drafts. Exactly. I learned today when I was watching the P-94 podcast featuring Isaac Gutierrez and also Joe Kitz Joe Star, Jack, that they have pretty much all their first-round picks. Every single one except for, I think Jack said they have like maybe one that's like heavily protected or whatever back in like 2030. But basically like the Jordan pool trade.

They're fully set. They have everything. They have nothing to lose in the future at all. And right now, seeing how they're just trying their best to asset manage and like think about the future too while doing what you can around Steph Curry is just, it's a nasty product. And the 15 year old me inside is just a grinning, low key on the, although I like seeing Steph Curry do his thing.

I'm also happy. You're just preparing on the downfall? It's a little bit. It's wonderful. You're a certified staff hater? Certified warriors hater? No, I'm not staff hater. It's warriors, though.

For sure. Okay, okay. Real quick. Let me read out some donations before we move on. Haven't gotten to him yet. Shout out to Horse of Yo Kitcher tipping $14.28. He said, does the donation amount look familiar? Hint, CFB.

Also, Isaac, I've enjoyed the new pod. Do you guys have any advice if people want to get into podcasting, the basketball cities, all seen success in this area. Donovan first, we'd like to respond to the $14.28 donation amount. Wait, what's that? That is the score of the Texas Ohio State game.

Damn, homie. Mo, mo, that was your man. I told you about that yesterday. Don't do that. Yesterday, I was on a goddamn call with Donovan. He said it would kill me just for doing this. At 1 p.m. in the afternoon, he said he would unalive me, bro, for doing these.

How serious is this? You just keep you doing it? Relax, relax, relax. But also, listen, since he wants to be petty and all that, you don't get any advice. Figure it out. Get out the slums. That's my advice. Go ahead and go to work.

Shout out to Kevin Gillicky for donating $10. He said, need my TG3 tonight. Just got broken up with and had to cancel our trip to the mall. Deves. It was seven days at some over-water villa. You got broken up with a week before your trip

to the Maldives? Oh, brother! Kevin, Kevin. You should still go. Go by yourself. Fuck it. This is Kevin Galicki? This is Kevin Galicki. Not by sweet Galicki.

Damn. No, Kevin, I'm sorry. everybody in the chat, listen, go ahead. Whatever you drink and pour one out for Kevin. We all this time. Spam W's for Kevin, man. Tell them it's going to be okay. You love you, Kevin.

And shout out to Walking 37 for donating $4.81. We appreciate you guys. My speak of a lickie. Look at that. Everyone's spamming up for Kevin. Look at that. Look at the supportive chat. Exactly.

We're a family over here. Next new story. Palibankero. his return tonight, 34 points, seven rebounds, three assists, three steals, 52% from the field. This man came back in this past week, did not lose us, death. He's back. He's back. He's back. It's over for the league. Orlando's up. Play the music. Oh, my goodness. I was so happy to watch this. I'm very, very happy. And it gives me hope and it gives me optimism when Franz comes back. Again, same injury. That's the craziest part about

all this is that him and Franz had this same bright oblique injury. And it's a funny injury, too. Right, obliques. Like, you're just doing some Russian twist. You got a sore tummy. Soar tummy. I'm not sure. But this is the, this is the perfect sign if you're the Orlando Magic.

Because this January is right before all-star break. You're about to get everybody back. You're going to be ready for that final push. Make one trade? Oh, my goodness. The magic could be on it. They could be on something. I was getting slander in the comments for our last video

because when we're doing the trade. crazy episode, we got to the Orlando Magic and Donovan was talking about them trade for Colin Sexton. And at the end of that segment, I was like, let's move on to something more exciting that I care about to talk about the sun's blowing it up. And they're like, the three Orlando Magic fans in the world were in the comments being like, why is it every time I come on this show y'all are shitting on us with my team? And I was like, bro. We love the magic. I love the magic. I just don't give a fuck about them training for Colin Sexton and I wanted to have a funny transition to talk about Kevin Durant trades.

And they were acting like, I told Magic fans they should shut up and die. understand if I care if nobody else cares I care I want the magic to to be good and I'm rooting for them in I think outside the Knicks I'm rooting for the magic in the Eastern Conference yeah I would love to see them in the Eastern Conference finals I just we've seen Palo be amazing by himself we've seen Franz be amazing by himself if we can see a click at the same time like the we need an injection of a new really good team right now the league is super top heavy especially out west there's two great teams oh really one and then the maps deserve that too even though they haven't had luca to show it but there's like a couple good teams in both conferences and a lot of disappointment right now we need the magic to be full strength so they can really

inject another contender in here exactly yeah i agree listen somebody forgot to do the raptors last week we didn't forget to do the raptors we just had you guys trading your good players for bad players yes all 32 yeah we used the rapids for killio linic i think jack used them for killing No, I did.

I said Maxi Kleba and a pick for Kelly Olinick. That was the Raptors shade. What is this? We did that for the Raptors and the Bulls. What is this? Whoa, Donovan got attacked. Whoa, hops. The door got opened.

Penny on the mic. Let her get her takes off. I know she got some shit to say. Come on, baby. Exactly. Anyways, yeah. Palo Man Caro is back. All is well in the world in the New Orlando Magic.

Uh, seeing him come back and drop 34 and seeing how he was just controlling that game from start to finish. I think they lost, but seeing how he was just, I caught the tail into the fourth quarter. He's such a force and they're back to playing like, you know, Paula and Carroll basketball. And like you guys said, hopefully that should change his once Franz comes back. But man, he just commands so much attention, so much. Arnav in the chat said, Isaac, why do you hate the wolves? why don't you hate the wolves why don't you hate the way they've moved in the past six months

the shit that they've done after making a Western Conference of finals to dismantle that team and make you have to watch Julius Randall and Rudy Gobert play basketball next to your star shooting guard why don't you hate them you should hate them if you're a wolf fan

you should feel a lot more strong about that than I do they are the reason they are the reason they took one of the most athletic players in the NBA and forced him to get a jumper so that there is any type of facing on that team you look at the way you look at the way the ant plays right now this is the timber wolves fault it happened internally if you hate what's going on that is the reason why

all right next next new story this is another thing warriors related that i forgot was in this doc jaymond green says he's no longer contemplates retirement thanks to therapy the bullshit had taken over the love the drive was gone and so bullshit taken over let me down a bullshit path i'm from saginall michigan i'm from an all black neighborhood that you don't go to therapy or you're fucking weak so you're retraining a brain that's been thinking a certain way for 30 years so interesting that he was contemplating retirement that's why i want to talk about this obviously this is in reference to the jordan pool thing and everything they came after that it was a very turbulent year for draymond green and i fully respect the whole idea that he felt like he needed

to go to therapy and get through all that obviously some of that self-imposed so people were laughing at him for this and i understand why but it's interesting didn't admit not looking back knowing this Does it make sense that he was contemplating retirement when you think about the last year? There's only one way out of the situation. You see, this guy gets traded or I get traded or I retire. And I think for him, he probably knew or thought like, oh, shit, like, obviously the workplace will never be the same because I literally assaulted my coworker. So there's actual, actual beef intention. He's either he's out or I'm out.

And if I get traded, he's not going to, he's not going to do that. He's just going to retire. So it makes sense. It makes sense. There's like, if you're a drummer, why would you, you both such. a beautiful career, beautiful storyline with the Warriors and Steph Curry and Dremont, I think Jermon's going to be valuable wherever he goes, but seeing him without Seth Scurry, I don't think his value is going to be high regardless.

Steph Scurry. His value is going to be high regardless, but I'd go out, I'd just retire 2,000. Yeah, I didn't retire too if I was in. Yeah, I'll retire too. Yeah, it's either like, I play in. in Detroit or Memphis or I retire? Yeah, I'm back in my bags.

I'm going home. It makes sense. It makes sense. You see, listen, hurt people, right? Like real, real eyes, real lives, real lives,

you know what I'm saying? He hurt people. And so it's like, you see the way that he was out here, you know, swinging, throwing punches every two weeks, not really being,

or I guess like crossing that line, because obviously, Draymond has always played with an edge and he's always talked about like if I don't have that edge then I can't be me. And so after after your actions cost the warriors and cost the entire vibes of a title defense, there probably is some sense of like, dang, I just ruined the back half of this dynasty. I just ruined, you know, any chance that step has to get to level up. I just ruined my chances to be here.

You probably are spiraling in a little bit. And so he probably was trying to like tap in as deep as possible into whatever makes Dremont Dremont. And so last year we saw a lot of that spilling over. And so it makes sense hearing this on this side. Yeah. Yeah, that's not, I mean, you know, whenever somebody that happens, there's a lot of criticism that comes with it, naturally. We criticize him for being a torpedo to continue chemistry. It is what it is.

He's a person. So, you know, it's certain things go into that that lead to these boiling points. So interesting to see him. He's been very, he's been very transparent. talking about it in the moment too and he's gotten clown for the most part because he has a very like centered on past it moving on viewpoint that people laugh at because they make people like to say you're making yourself a victim for a workplace thing you did and I get it but at times it's unfair you know he's a person so it's cool to see him talk about it yeah the only time yeah the only time

that you could really say that is like you know you came out on opening night and had a documentary about how you were affected by the that was crazy that was crazy yeah that's the that's the that's the that's the that's the only time it's okay this is this is a bit much that was that was just bad media strategy I don't know who advised that it was probably him it's probably him 100% I don't know who who told him that's okay not even a documentary a mini documentary yeah mini doctors are so trash every time we have these network TV mini docs are always fucking garbage they're so bad I wonder what the warriors would have looked like if dream on just a decided to drop basketball.

They 100% would have their picks just to have another guy in there. Who knows? Steph would have been in Memphis. He would have been gone. Camingo, please. Next new story.

Another podcaster, Jaylon Brunson, weighed in on the MVP debate. He re-engraised to him himself with the Dallas Mavericks fans. He said, Denver's not seated like last season and people are still talking

my yokech being the MVP. When Luca was averaging damn near a triple double, they were like, oh, he shouldn't win MVP because of his seating. This is going to be, no, it's funny, the MVP debate right now isn't even about the current MVP. It's so much relitigation of last year at being like, oh, different standards now, huh? When like every year is different.

This is 90% of the conversation on the MVP award right now. Yes, every year is fucking different. It's so interesting to see people like Jalen Brunson who shared like the common NBA mind when it comes to having warped, expectations for the NBA MVP race year after year after year. Don what do you have to say about your point guard saying is blasphemous take? I don't know blasphemous is the word, but it is naive. It's not, it's not, I like, I understand, well, one, it makes sense like that he's, you know, defending Luca, like he played with him.

They're probably cool. He'd probably, you know, saying stuff to defend himself. It makes sense on that part. But all of this, I think, like, all of this really stems from Russ's MVP. Like, people go back to Yolkech's 21 MVP, but the Rusting, the Russ year is the one where it's really like, okay, what, like, what are we going to do? Because basically, before that, it was like, who is the best player on, like, a top two seat?

And if your team is OP and you're the one seed, maybe not. And or if you've gotten it a lot, then maybe we're not going to do that. but that year Hardin is out here doing you know Prime James Hardin thing the rockets are you know at the top of the Western Conference doing all that but you have Russell Westbrook doing a historic thing breaking the triple double record and so they they get to the to the six seed and they can drag them there that history overpowers everything so now every other year you look at stuff that Yokic is done you look at stuff that other people have done and yes while other people on better teams may have been doing the normal standard, now you have the other precedent of, hey, but this guy's also having a historic year. And so you've rewarded that with Russ. Now you have to go back and start, you know, giving people who are doing historic things their MVP as well. So it's like the whole game is just different now after Russ got his. I think people are trying so hard. It makes you feel like people are being purposely naive sometimes. Like, I feel like it's obviously

a complex award. It's a subjective thing that people are trying to treat like a subjective. And they think it's like an own to be like, hmm, different criteria than last year. When the whole point of the award is that year to year, everything is different and it's extremely subjective. They're also using this false equivalency, like everybody who thought this last year thinks the same thing this next year. And it's just like weird setting of standards that aren't even necessarily true. And they're just trying to make it this like simple formula. But it's like the most unsimple formula in the world on purpose, you're supposed to be able to weigh things differently. and they're just screaming top of their lungs,

everything should be the same every year when that's just not reality. Yeah, you want it to be like that because I think like when you talk about like the MVP and what that is, you want to be able. Like I know like talking about the MVP for the entire season, even after, you know, two games, whatever.

It's fun and it can be fun to a certain point. But I do feel like at the end of the day, people want to look at whoever won the MVP and be like, yes, like, that's the MVP and have a very clear cut. But whenever you start to have a little bit more, like, nuanced conversations, you know, you start bringing in different factors, then people are like, oh, it's not as simple as it should be. And that's where a lot of people probably get caught up in.

Yeah, true. That's so true. If you sit down and look at like every other award, it's pretty clear cut and dry, rookie of the year, most opportunity, most points of the game, six minutes of the year, most points of the year, most points of the game, defense player of the year best defense is like a clear blueprint yeah there's a clear blueprint that's super consistent every single year except for the MVP and that's one of those things where it's us like like you guys said it's more of a nuanced conversation is way more

layers to this cake and nor for it to be like received it is like the best individual word out there for a reason but in the chat said christian in the chat said this is exactly the problem though why is the criteria change every year the criteria doesn't change the outcome of the criteria changes the landscape changes that's what it is that too but also the criteria is not one thing you guys have this in your mind that it's best player on best team because that's probably what voters in the fucking 90s did because there was far less education and the journalists have voted on it weren't watching games because they didn't have league pass so they kind of like it was a super lazy award and that precedent took time to change and then over time things that were new ones

because there's more information just like there is in every field and now we're at the point where it's a mix every single year this is the same thing it's a mix of team success individual production storyline

yada yada yada yada whatever it's his whole pool of things and they're weighed individually in different ways based on the person and every year

you kind of combine all those things and somebody wins some years the best player who's going absolutely ape shit is on the best team

so you still get the best player best team sometimes they're not and there's no clear cut MVP level player on the best team so that's not

what happens the criteria didn't change the pool of who was available to judge changed yeah exactly that's the best one but it it's it is it is tough though and i'm because like i don't know you you have you have guys from from year to year where sometimes the ballot just doesn't shake up the way that that you would think like even last year shay shee doing

whatever he did listen he finished he finished like runner up but like you look at that and he's and you know yogic was also like right there to the to the very end i think like there's there there should be maybe not like should be but like a lot of people want to have some type of baseline of what is team success like do you have to be the succeed and the reason why seating is so hard now is because the way that has gone in the past couple years is that you have your top team and then a bunch of mid right and everybody everybody's so you know close together that the six seed may only be two games behind the two seat and it's like are we really going to you know disparate somebody or knock somebody out of this running over what half a week of

basketball it's kind of it's kind of weird to do that in my people yeah people were just like seeking simplicity in an era where we don't need to be simple anymore we can be nuanced because we have more information and people are just like not receptive to it because it's again most people that are having these feelings I guess some people just think luke's the MVP that's fine but most of the principle on this is just based on like not wanting to think about it that much and be used to not having to think about it that much

are you calling people dumb no I'm not calling people dumb I'm calling people used to a level of easiness to follow the race and it's no longer that easy you call it all dumb in the nicest way possible I'm more calling them unattentive than dumb it's not necessarily intellect

it's just like not wanting to try very hard and wanting to have an opinion despite not trying very hard also Lucas probably not going to play 65 games So, like, hey, he's out of it. He's done. He's done.

So now we can all just say, hey, Shay, here's your MVP. You guys can go win high, you know, 66 games, whatever. There's your award. There you go. Next new story. The Kings have won seven straight games. This has been the most whiplashed month I've ever seen from a team. They were so down in the mud, lost so many games in a row, fired their coach.

The entire media landscape was writing the goddamn obituary to the Sacramento Kings. we're talking like, oh shit, here comes the Aaron Fox trade, the writing's on the wall, everything's crumbling around them, and now they've got a new coach. And like every team that happens when it's fire coach midseason, a spark is lit under them, they had this newfound motivation, their backs against the wall and they go crazy, and now we're here, seven straight victories. We've seen the story so many times, time after time after time, bro. I remember one of the first times I noticed like this trend happening.

where a team goes ahead and fires their coach I think it happened Actually I lied It didn't happen in that time But it happened so many Yeah I was I was thinking about the 2018 Caz But no they like revamped their entire team There was no coach firing

But this happens in general So many times where okay Fuck we finally got this old fuck This old grump out the room I don't be serious about basketball And they just These players start going crazy But what was interesting about this room too

Is that I think three or maybe four Out of their last few wins D.R. Fox wasn't even playing. Yeah. Honestly, so part of it is obviously, you know, you get a newfound. You just new voice in the locker room. You rally behind him. It doesn't always last the whole rest of the year.

But usually you see this and there's like an immediate bump in a team. But also whenever they were losing all those games and they were bad, they were like an unlucky bad, not like pure incompetent. They were like a top eight offense and like 17th in defense. That's a team that very easily could have been to succeed. That's like a similar landscape to what the Lakers are. and they're like the fucking five seed. So they weren't super far off from being,

like it was like a 15 point margin difference between being 0 and 6 and 0 in those six games they lost in a row. So the fact that things are swinging this way now and they're getting some positive regression, it's not crazy, you know, they were never supposed to be one of the worst teams in league. They were supposed to be a playing level team.

Playing level teams are going to have ups and downs that kind of comes with it. Yeah, we saw this earlier in the year with the Mavericks where the Mavericks started off really slow and it was just because they were losing a lot of close games. and they're like they have luca and kairi and so they can you know they can go on these streets and get themselves back to the top of the conference when you're mid like the

sacramento kings are you can't afford to have one of those streets because now you end up at you know at the at the bottom of the standings you end up in the 11th and 12th seed and it takes something like this to get back on track the rest of the road do i think that the kings are going to be this like juggernaut that just figured it out probably not But like, again, shout out to them because now you've put yourself in a position to be probably where you should have been this entire time. Yep. Is right around, you know, right around the middle. Maybe you get a couple more good breaks throughout the rest of the season and you can make your way up to playing standings.

But this is, it really is just getting right back on track rather than, oh, we've completely flipped around, expect, you know, Kings to the Moon and all that stuff. That's probably not the way to go. But it does feel good for the Kings that at least now. you could kind of have like a fresh slate. Also, I love how we were clamoring saying, Fire Mike Brown is a little weird, but he wasn't playing Keon Ellis at all, and we were screaming on top of our lungs

as an entire NBA community. Why the fuck are you not playing Keon Ellis? It's insane, given your personnel and what he brings and what you need. Kind of hilarious that they simply started playing him a lot, and they start winning games. Like, who would have thought? You play your best players,

and you're going to do at least a little bit better than you were before. Wow. You're telling me a team that was one of the worst defense or not one of the best defenses in the NBA at 17th like you said insert one of the better

wing defenders guard defenders in the league and then also top of that too he could shoot a little bit you put him on it on you put him starting alongside Deeran Fox DeMarter Rosen and Sabonis who would have known that would have done wonders what a concept

playing your best players what a concept coach of the year that man and also it just seems like you know sometimes some coaches are good but not for the right Not for that locker room. There was a comment right after he got fired, Malik Monk mentioned the different perspective they'll have under Christie,

and he mentioned he played the game before. Maybe this is a locker room that, you know, DeMarre Rosen is an old vet. He plays a game a certain way. However else, the personalities fall into that, you know, spectrum, these are guys that maybe need to hear from a guy like Doug Christie more than they do a guy like Mike Brown, who wasn't an NBA player.

Sometimes you need a smart and nerdy guy like Mike Brown. Sometimes you need a guy who was, like Doug and he's like I've been in your shoes before he's a guy like Doug around everyone and someone like Doug around was Doug Christie who really who've been like that? He's a good player he played yeah he was a role player he's good

he wasn't like a star but he was a good player who's the who's the comparison who was Doug Christy? Man I don't know I'm not I'm not really doing this right? No no no let's be proud of Doug Christie like this I'm glad listen you play you play right we know you like that

we rock with you? It was a bucket dude Doug Christian point Yeah, Doug Christian was a good player That's what I'm saying Shout out Doug He was an all defense guy And he had a couple years We scored a lot of points

Who was Doug Christian? What a respect He had a long NBA career, man Yeah, Doug Christie was good Wow, okay Apparently Donovan doesn't want to talk about Doug Christie so we'll move on Next news story

Yeah, I'm not trying to figure out Where Doug Christie will land In today's NBA Yeah, yeah, do that We haven't talked about this Because this happened We recorded last episode per Chris Haynes.

Zion Wilmson was suspended for one game on January 10th. And he said it was because the New Orleans Pelican star Zion Wilmson has been late for multiple practices this season on top of being late for the team's flight to Philadelphia. These incidents led to a one game suspension. I feel like every other stream

we're up here talking about Zion and it always leads back to some type of personality issue, some type of disciplinary action. And this is the first time that they publicly came out and punished him. Which to me is they're sending a message that for the last three years,

years. There's been a lot of smoke out there that you don't want to be here. And there's been a lot of speculation that you haven't been hardworking. You haven't been doing what you need to do. You haven't been staying in shape. You haven't been doing this, this and that. And he comes back now post injury. He was an incredible shape. We all looked up and said, wow, Simon Williamson finally putting in the work. He's finally serious. And after one fucking game, he's late to a team flight and gets suspended. Wow. That is beyond embarrassing. I'm rooting for you. I'm sure NBA players are like late all the time. nothing just happens until unless like a player goes ahead and like spills the beans or if like the media

or the team suspends them and has to like you know give a real clarification reason or whatever this is so embarrassing i don't think NBA players are late that often i don't know if that is super common i mean i'm sure i'm sure it happens but like i think it's fairly easy to not be late for a fucking team flight after a game i don't think it's that hard i don't think it's that common I think most our players are on time for flights. Oh, yeah, for fights for sure. That's embarrassing. And, like, he's not DeAndre Aden, but, man, how many number one picks are we going to see squander

such great talent for, like, can maybe I should say squander because he is good and he hasn't gotten unlucky injuries? But he's not as good as he could be, and I don't want to ever, like, pretend I know a player and I'm in the locker room. But I think we've seen and heard enough that he's clearly not the most hardworking he could be and it's so frustrating as someone who's always defending him because he's so amazing and has gotten unlucky but it's you can't seeing a star player whose only job is to be a star player have a bad work ethic is so frustrating bro being late late to a flight you know you know you

this is what i'm saying for all for all these guys right because obviously he's not like you say he's not a in of course you're not prime james hardin either right you're not primed LeBron James, you don't have the cachet in the NBA to be like, oh, yeah, like, this franchise lives and dies with me. The franchise is probably going to die because they've been, you know, hoping that Zion's going to take over. What we need to do is come up with an NBA scared straight program. And I think that we should take, we should take guys who are late, have bad work, work ethic, right?

If we're trying to teach professionalism, listen, let's go get them an internship somewhere. right they got they got they got to clock in they got to do all this stuff see what it is to to show up on time and bring that back to your NBA job because for you to not be able to show up on time and do the like little things because yes there's a level of like and I don't know I I don't like to be late to things and this is just like a personal thing but I also think that like being being late and not showing up to certain things and starting things late it is kind of at a certain point it is disrespectful to like to the other people on your team and also just to like the organization as a whole so like if we say that we're that we got to be

somewhere at 1115 why are you here at like 1130 like we we got places to be things to do you're getting off your old man takes about being couple minutes late now right now they're no I said no I said that's a personal thing but like but also you've seen you've seen star players do that do that before and some star players are good enough to where it's like uh you know we we hate that he's late but he's gonna go out there and drop 35 every night you don't see that with zion and so you don't have that level of cachet in order for you to do that yeah i fucking despise when like professional media members go on tv and they're like zion's a fat fuck he wants to eat macdonald all day like with fucking shannon sharp and step they're doing i think that's

the most not even just unprofessional unfunny bullshit the joke is not funny anymore it's so ran into the ground it's just like lame as fuck and i hate that but people do need to hold them accountable for not being hardworking for being lazy leave the fat drugs behind and talk about him simply not wanting him bad enough and that's embarrassing because that is real yeah what stephena says be saying it's a little bit funny i'm not gonna lie it's funny not he's not but it's just like the delivery and how creative he is when he comes to just like figuring out ways to call him it's the timing it's the timing and the presentation Where it's like, you're so theatrical with this.

And you are, you are so good at, you're so good at just presenting this information. What's the famous line as a late Donovan? No, no, no, no, no, I can't do that right now. It was 22 years ago when he said, two years ago when he was like, I'm hearing holy to table. At that point, I understood. Now, doing Zion fat jokes in 2025 is so, it's just beating a dead horse. Why would he say that? Like, that's fucking crazy.

Oh, I missed it. I shout out to Matthew for tipping $50. I missed a fat-ass donation. Appreciate you, Matthew. Not to you. He said, new nickname for KD, Revelation, from when he arrives,

an apocalypse is soon to follow. Now, that is some glaze, but it is a cool nickname. I don't know if I want to give that cool nickname to Kevin Durantz, but I think you should say that for somebody who is a little more threatening. Oh, Kevin Durant's not threatening to you?

No, he's just so calm. He's so calm. Like, I don't know. I've never. I wouldn't associate him with an aggressive nickname, you know? I mean, his game speaks for that. Personality-wise, I can see that, but I like...

I think called Wemby the Revelation? That'd be kind of hard. What's threatening about... What do you mean? They have, like, Wemby and Katie have, like, they're both chill guys. I think Wembe is a lot more aggressive on the core.

He'd yell, he'd be yelling and shit. I think he's a lot more aggressive than Kevin Durant. Really? Just like, yeah, he's more fiery. I mean, I don't know. We're talking about bullshit, but I think a little bit. I guess the most dirty thing that Katie is going to do to you just be like that's it

next new story this was hilarious did y'all see the jaunte porter leaked text messages that's hilarious these are so funny chat look at this it was from the uh what do you call it the court case whatever you call it that was going through transcription sure the transcription of the litigation behind a jonte porter

who might get fucking jail time for his role in this prison time sports betting scam he was texting co-conspirators during games and saying

these are four texts one I went back to the locker room to get my eye checked on I don't know if I'm going to play much more I'm not starting the second half

but if it's garbage time I will shoot a million shots you're doing this on the iCloud account like yo man he's so stupid this guy's fucking dumb why

why do you not have a boost mobile phone why do you why do you not have I've seen oh my goodness I've seen enough crime shows I know where to get the burner you know that's what you got to operate on not on the Iclan account he doesn't know they were up on a wire they had his shit wiretap they were

investigating him oh man man basketball was never the goal for he was an IRL gambler and he saw an opportunity to go ahead take control of his own cards and you did that that is

this is this is it really it really is crazy that like he got caught up in in this way they got you in 4k in 8k there's no clear thing like that drew that druski skit where he's like good news we got your payment like that is exactly how it's going to go for jontay border because you can't you can't you can't be foolish enough to think that you're like at half time like yeah man I'm not going to do a place I bet. Can you imagine how embarrassing it is? Like being a handcuffs, head down, and the judges are reading out your text out loud.

Like, you're really telling these people you're going to take a million shots? He said, The plaintiff said, verbatim, but if it's garbage time, I will shoot a million shots. He's like, yes, guilty. That was ass in jail, God damn it? That's crazy. It's another case of just like knowing who you are.

Because remember, they said that, that they got tipped off because there were certain days where Jonte Porter props were the most head-on props at the sports book. Anybody who's betting $20,000 on the over on Jonte Porter points

is it fucking criminal? I understand Jonte's like logic. He's like, growing up John Tate Porter, who's really going to peep it? Like, I barely play on the on the Rapper's sword. I understand that logic too, but I also understand he's a fucking idiot

for thinking that. For thinking of this shit isn't highly regulated, highly monitored you're a more it's fan duel you idiot what are you talking about it's not like he was doing some like backdoor local batteries running off on like a 1980s local bookie it's his fucking fan duel this is an official partner of the NBA official partner at the NBA you're like yeah I'm looking over on you're dumb as rocks do you wait also I think it's I think it's jail time is like

seven eight years or something crazy like that oh he's they don't get that he probably I don't think I'll actually get jailed. Was he user Profit Boost tokens on himself? He redeemed promo code BSBod. That's like, yeah, 20% for $20 for you bet. That's embarrassing. He's promo code nightcapped. Oh, man.

That's the new stories for the day. Let's move on to the main topic of this episode. Let's talk about players who deserve more attention. Chat, you all, you guys have been spamming. You guys have been spamming all your favorite players right now in the chat. You've been talking to all these people you want to see us talk about. Now's the time. We'll take turns going through.

And I'll start. We've got to talk about Jalen Green. Jalen Green is on his yearly heater. Last year, the heater started in March and ran through the beginning of April. This time, the heater has started 10 games ago. So, rewind. Whole season. He has been Jalen Green.

He has looked a little bit better. I think he's looked that he's playing within the flow of the offense. he's been defending a little better. He's been scoring, I don't know if you guys know this for the whole season. He's at 72% at the rim, which is insane. That's better than Shea. He's been a fucking downhill demon. But he has been one of the worst shooters in the NBA all season.

He shoots like 35% from mid-range, 35% from 3. Overall, he's still very inefficient despite being a downhill demon. But the last 11 games, he is once again in a stress where he's shooting over 40% from 3. And bro, anytime he has these weeks where the shot falls and he can use that downhill athleticism and then had the step back three like Donovan Mitchell, he looks like a star. They played against the Grizzies last night and they walked the Grizzlies down.

They were down like 15 in the first half and Jalen had the best game of his entire career matched his season high, I mean his career high in 42 points. He looks so much better than John Moran in that game. It was crazy. Good for him. You hate Jaileneering.

No, it's not even hate. It really is like good for you because I have personally given up on the idea that Jalen Green is going to be a franchise player like your franchise two guard. That thought has left my mind. He can have his yearly stretch and going into next year.

I'm not going to buy into it. I would have to see this for like three, maybe four months before I'm like, okay, no, like this is exactly what Jalen Green is. I'm just happy for him because now, you can craft out an actual role and you can be like this guy, like this instant offense guy, you still have like some kind of a ceiling to where whenever Houston does

eventually make that consolidation trade, if Jalen Green is a part of that, you can go and you can be productive on another team. I just don't like, I just don't think that I don't think he's this guy. So like every time I see it, honestly, I get kind of annoyed because I'm like,

I'm not going to see it. You can annoy. See later. You know what hell is wrong with you? Because I'm not going to see it for a whole year. And so, like, we're going to come on here and be like, oh, wow. Yo, shout out Jalen Greene. Oh, is he turning a coin?

And then we're going to see him in two weeks and he's going to shoot seven for 21. It's like, oh, dang, like, back to the Jalen Green experience. Yeah, with the fact, Jalen Green, the problem has never been sealing. We've always known he can have huge games. It's about can you string him together consistently. That's obviously been the thing and missing. That's why we always talk about the one month he has a year. So you're right.

You can only get so excited. he does need to prove consistency over everything. So it's been two weeks. I mean, after last year, I said that I believe he's getting better. I believe he'll be better this year. He wasn't for the first two months. Oh, he was better. He just wasn't shooting better.

And I've never thought he's going to be who he is during these hot streaks where he's going to be averaging fucking 30 being unstoppable from three. But I do think there's a world where he finds someplace in the middle. And streaks like these are, I think, the type of building blocks you want to see. Yeah, especially for the team like Houston Rock is. who are kind of like tied down to him. They purposely tied them, tie himself down to them

because they saw that stretch at the end of the last season and like, okay, if we can get this guy, we're fucking set as an organization. Now obviously, like you guys said, ups and downs and comes to who he is as a player. But if going back to what I was like,

if he's able to like maintain and be somewhere in the middle between of like best version of Jaling Green versus the Michael Jordans of J.R. Smith's jailing green. How do you just say worth it? Yeah, I think also amend Thompson makes him a lot better. I feel like they fit together so perfectly For all the obvious reasons

A men does everything Jalen doesn't And he makes any They're inverse You can imagine A men will fit with any high volume score And I saw a tweet earlier Counting the end of last season And this season so far

They've started 26 games together And in the 26 games At Jalen Green starts next to Amin He's averaging 26 and a half points It's shooting 40% from three And like 48% from the field Maybe a coincidence Because it just happens to align

With both heaters But maybe not Maybe they are just really good for each other Yeah I was just going to say, like, a men's, like, my next player to talk about. Okay, tell us about, tell us about a man. Dude, he's ridiculous. Jabari Smith Jr. is currently out of the starting lineup.

And now that he's out and we're seeing offense led by Singoon, Amin, and Jalen Green, to me, like, it's going to be so hard if you imidoka to, like, look at him, and Salli's been cooking, see how he's, like, been helping connect all the dots. And be like, yeah, buddy, like, go back. to the bench. We got our starting four now. Even though Jabari Smith Jr. is like a genuinely good player and he's made somewhat improvements, what a man

does and the amount of ground that he covers on all levels of the court outside of like obviously shooting, but with his cutting, his playmaking, and the defense, it's a whole other question. One of the seven best defenders or however way you want to put it in the entire NBA. He's genuinely like that.

Like, seeing him evolve in such a way, and like being able to cover all the grounds that Sangoon is efficient and also Jalen Green is deficient and then even like Frederick Leaked to Sun Lights too like he's he's the ultimate like he's the ultimate Swiss Army guy

I've always been high on him I've been saying he's going to be a star since the jump and I've kind of always envisioned him being the point guard that he was coming up he's a great passer but his handle right now is nowhere near good enough to run full-time point guard or maybe it's that maybe it's they just don't need that from him having fred maybe a bit of both

even if he's never a point guard and stays this like hyperactive secondary playmaking wing then he's just Andre godala he's just gonna be awesome as a do-it-all wing like that's still a great outcome even if he never can be a point guard there's just I don't I can't see a world in which he's not an amazing player like if he's not an all-star I'll be baffled yeah I can see a world in which he's not probably not an all-star

because there's other things I don't he's this good this young Oh, all cases are needed or whatever, but I can see where he's like, I think he definitely going to slide into one or two in his career, but I won't be surprised if he's not a consistent all-star. The overrunner's three, I'm taking the over. Okay. I'm very confident. He's so young.

He's instilling, not in the priority role, and he's this good, just like, he very easily could not have gotten touches on this team and can be in a place where he couldn't thrive. And he's just been so good and so good at every small thing that he's just, like, carved out a niche for himself. he doesn't have high usage he isn't played through in any way he's not close to the priority and he just forced his way into value every single step of the way i just don't see this improvement curve slowing down that's interesting i really like them and too i i feel like it's

going to be hard though in the in the west obviously moving forward and like we don't have to get into that stuff about like three or four but that that seems that seems about right i just think like it is it is very interesting and it's it's fun to see like yo when guys are just talented it ideal fit doesn't even matter like you just got you just have to put people on the floor and they go and it makes them happen and i think like that's the that's the cool part whenever you see a man and you see jayling green on the floor especially like the way that he plays off of him because at all times when they are on the floor you have the two best athletes on the floor yes and so now and so now you can just like they have so they have so

so many lineups and so many like two-man combos, whether it would be like a man in Jalen Green or a man and Tari and stuff like that, where you can just have two of the best athletes on the floor and just mess up an entire unit at any given time and it gives you so much of a boost and so much of a runway to go out and just be disruptive. And I think that for the Rockets,

especially building a defensive identity that helps so much. We thought he was going to be a slashing point guard, and now he's playing the fucking dunker spot vertical spacing four man that's blocking five shots against the grizzlies and literally standing dunker spot and finishing dump off passes that's a good basketball player

yeah he just figured the shit out like he's just that guy yeah that's that's that's that's all it is and shout out to e-may too because we keep saying this about like about the rockets that they just have so many guys and so it honestly takes a lot especially for a guy like e-may who's always like

Yeah, like, you know, you really have to work for all your minutes and earn them and do all this stuff. The fact, the fact that a man has progressed this quickly and has made his impact felt on this team on a night in and night out basis, that just shows where he's at right now and where he's going to go. So, yeah, I think if you have not been watching the Rockets and you don't know what a man Thompson is capable of, go ahead and tap it. Yeah. Go ahead and tap it. Recent donations, okay, before move on to your first person, Donovan. Shout out to Matthew for tipping $25. he said apocalyptic for the team that signed him

I don't remember who we're talking about when he said that so I don't know what that's about but appreciate you man donating again shout out to sandy beats for donating $5 he said Isaac the UH hat from last episode was sick what compels you to get that as a UT grad I just like the colors that's always the answer people ask me all the time on the chat why I'm wearing an angel's hat why I'm wearing a UH hat I just think the shit's hard that's it's one of those dresses

the jacket has a suns patch on it right here I don't go fuck about the sons. B2B soup, donated $5.43. He said, we've gotten most crayon merch. I'm here for the Don's bucket merch. We got to get you said the game's about a bucket. You're going to make a shirt with that on it.

Let's do it. All right, Donovan, who's your first team? Who's your first player? Listen, we got to talk about Russell Westford. That'll be my next player too. Let's do it. We have to talk about Russ. Russ is playing the best basketball that he's played in years.

And it's like, we talked about, listen, we're going to get to Russell real quick. If you wanted to make any case for Nicole Yokic to win MVP, it is the fact that Russell Westbrook is playing the best basketball of his career next to Yokic. And that there has been, you had star player after star player after star player that Russ has been with and has tried to been the sidekick with. And it hasn't necessarily worked to the extent that you would like. and the fact that Russell Westbrook is at this point, the fact, the fact that he is at this point in his career and everything is working out the way that it is right now and the synergy that him and Yokic have right now, that is one of the best cases to say, no, Nicole Yokic is actually that's right. They're a game out of the three seed out west. This is a team where like, yo, Jamal Murray is not athletic. They have to make a move. They have to do all this quietly. Yokic getting triple doubles. Russell Westbrook getting triple doubles. He's shooting, mind you, it's still not a great percentage from three.

Like, as a whole, it's still like very low 30s. But this is the best three-point shooting season that Russell Westbrook has had sit in like seven years. No, that's interesting? It's the best rim finishing season of his entire career. He's shooting 66% of the rim. He's never been that high. So best shooting season and best three-pointing season, listen, I am,

let's give all the credit. 100% to Nicola Yokic. He's the MVP. He's the reason. It has nothing to do with Russ. Every single bit of why Russ is good. I'm not going to Yonai, I see, listen. I lift up my brother, Russell Westbrook.

But yeah, but Russ is out here. Why I hope Nicole Yokch? It's all because of him. Russ is out here doing the things that teams have been asking him to do in the fact that he can play off of Yokic, beat fear cutter, shoot the best percentage. His playmaking is something that they really, really need so that Yolkis which is not the only person who has to make passes, that has led the Nuggets into a space where they can legitimately go on

another run. They can end the season as a three-seat. If they get crazy and Houston starts to fall off, there is a very realistic world where the Nuggets are the two-seed. And we look up, and for all the dooming gloom that we've had around the Nuggets this entire season, you look up and it's like, oh, wow, they're at 50 wins and they're the two-seed in the West. and we're going to go into a playoff series,

and you just don't want to play Yokic in that series. And part of that is he has his running mate. He has another running mate now, and that's Russell Westbrook. You know what? I might call Yokic the greatest player of all time. I love it. Oh, my God. They lagged out mid-rant.

Look at that. Let me get him back in here. Let me drag him in. That was hilarious. Golly. That timing. okay now you guys are both here

I was about to say I was about to say oh shit he's got again look at that now that's not on his Wi-Fi you're gonna say you'll call the greatest player

of all time why yes and I was gonna call him the greatest player of all time but then we got kicked out so I guess that's the universe telling me not to say that but I am soaring Yokic

even higher in my all-time list if he's able to win an NBA championship with Westbrook on his with Westbrook on his roster that would do so Playing meaningful minutes. Yes, with meaningful minutes, that'll be due so much for me, man.

Yeah, I mean, we're joking about Yokish being the whole reason why. But Russ has been so much better than Jamal Murray. Like, they probably got to find a way to keep Russ starting, at least for the regular season. This synergy he has in this system, the way that he can do, he's on the same wavelength as Yokic. Those guys have the same fucking hive mind brain.

They both see the same passing angles. They both have the same instinct to when to cut and be able to cut off of each other and feed each other it's just like watching Yokic and small Yokich in terms of the passing game they have and obviously Yokic is spacing his ability to

set Russ up for these cuts makes Russ a lot better but it's also that like Russ does bring what this roster needs they had Reggie Jackson as backup point guard last year who was just the dude he just was a standard ass 72 overall point guard he was perfectly competent in many areas but didn't bring a whole lot of like

dynamicism to the roster at all and for better or less Russ is, I mean for better or worse Russ is dynamic and if Yokic gives him the complementary skill sets to really reel in the worst parts and really get the most out of the best parts

he's just been a straight-up very good player for them. Yeah dude you're talking about Reggie Jackson the only time period where Reggie Jackson was like valuable was if Jamal Murray couldn't get it, couldn't turn it on.

Reggie Jackson's like the last like fucking man bring out the fire extinguisher. Let's have something to save us this night. Reg you save us. But now, Westwood gives you just an entirely different look. I love the word that you use, how dynamic he is. He just affects so many different things whether it be on defense and how hard he works. The passing, of course, and how he can facilitate. Again, like, hyper-efficient, which is so, like, anti-Russ in general,

what he known him to be for throughout his entire career. And just like the energy that he brings to, like, this is what he's been known for throughout his career and to see him just like elevate this entire team on both ends. It feels like he's just vibrating really well over there. Yeah. And of course the conversation on Twitter just evolves into just fucking degeneracy where everyone why couldn't he do this with LeBron? Why couldn't LeBron get the side of him?

Like, probably because he was making fucking $40 million a year and the roster around them sucked. But now he's making the minimum and it's awesome to get this much production for a minimum. If he was making $40 million, it still wouldn't feel great. But now he's actually in a role that doesn't, his purpose. presence doesn't detract asset-wise from everybody else in the roster so they can still have all that spacing, still have the core four players, and just add him as a cherry on top. It's the perfect situation for him right now in his career.

Also, some more, some more Yokic plays. Oh, my God. This guy's shooting 47% from three. That helps. Are we, are we serious? Like, it's very easy for everybody else to do your job if you to have a lot of spacing. When you're five men, who is one of the two to three best passers, that you've ever seen can do that not only from the high post but from the three point line

because you have to come out and respect him because once again he's shooting 47% from three that allows everybody else to do to do their job and somebody who like who like russell westberg has all the energy in the world can move around on the court and can fill in all the gaps shout out to us man that's kind of insane i know he was taking like five threes a game this year. That's like a career high. That's insane. Yeah. If Yokech, if they get the top three seed, this man is, I'm very okay if Shea wins MVP. Everything about Yolkits, you pull up a new number from this season. It's all fucking nut shit. What do you mean he's doing 47% from three? Why is that I talked about? That's outrageous.

We're 35 games in. That's still a thing. That's insane. It shouldn't be happening. It shouldn't be happening. I need the Thunder to win 70 games so it can just be like clear cut, like Shay's award. because listen like you said if they don't let them get the two seed don't we're finally desensitized to it I think a little bit because that part is not talked about at all there's so many absurd

yokets stats that we finally are like our eyes glaze over I said glize our eyes glaze over on some of them that's insane the fact nobody gives a fuck is a testament to how insane the amount of insane numbers he has is

exactly our next play I want to talk about a little bit this one's relatively quick because it's more a team-based thing Andrew Ninhard Andrew Nemhard had a little injury issues. He came back, he's here now. Right now, the Pacers are surging,

which is hilarious a week after your bowl prediction was a missed of playoffs. They continue to do really well. And in large part, because they have the best defensive lineup in the NBA. They're starting lineup with Andrew Nemhard, that's Tyreys Halliburton, Nemhard, Matherin, Seacum, Miles Turner,

is the best defensive lineup in the NBA. It's played 250 minutes, or like 235, close to 250. and they have a 97.9 defensive rating. They're absolutely locked down when Nemhart is playing next to those guys. And just shout on him for being the missing connecting piece that is just the perfect fit to really bring that team together right now. Yeah.

Last year, I think Rick Carlisle realized like, oh shit. Bennett and Mathron has injury issues and that like helped surge Andrew Nemhart into the starting lineup. And he was able to already carve up a niche in a role for him to just being simply 3 and D while also like having playmaking shop suit because he was a point guard in college. And now to see him just elevate that, I'm a humongous nymard guy.

And I just love to see it. Yeah, you're a nymph head. Nem head. And like we've seen stretches in the playoffs where he gets on like a heater and he's making shots and it's like, damn. Like they played the Cavs and he had some clutch end of the game threes where he really put the nail in the coffin. That's great.

Don't even care about that. That comes and goes, cool. But the small stuff he does, especially defensively, to bring the line together next to the more high usage guys, he's just the perfect off guard. for them. Facts. And on top of him, while we're on the topic of the paces, one of my guys was Tyrese Halliburton because we've talked a lot about how, oh, Tyrese's offensive game, he's just falling off. He's not good. He's not good anymore. We were, you know, he was, he was trending to be one of

the top four point guards. All that fell off. What happened to his back. That and he's been playing well and and like do do we think that like he's ever going to get back to that 26 and 12 on like ridiculous efficiency I'm not I'm not sure but if in order to do that you're going to have to take steps to get there and this is a step to get there and the fact that like over the last like 10 15 games he's averaging let me see I haven't put up he's averaging like 19 and 9 over the last 15 on pretty near like 50 40 90 efficiency like he's been he's been really really good And the fact that you can get that type of offensive production out of him and that type of efficiency, that's exactly what Indiana needs.

And so, like, you have Nemhard and his defensive presence. You have Tyrese Halliburton actually acting like that offensive engine that they need him to be. That is exactly what the plan was for the Pacers coming into the year. And now you can kind of see them making their push. And so it looks good for them, especially with those two guys, you know, finding their stride right now. Yeah. I think it's pretty clear that there is an injury. that's how he's helverin's been dealing with he's both things are true that he's not going

to be that 27 point per game guy anymore but he obviously isn't the complete shitter score that he was to start the year we talked about it and we were like this is wildly disappointing i don't know what to think anymore but none of us thought he was going to stay averaging goddamn 16 points per game on like negative five relative to your shooting that was impossibly bad there was going to be a positive swing and this is it and if he's going to be like an in between like where he was the first year with indiana where he's like a 22 21 point per game score on solid efficiency that's fine

that is very doable to build around they've kind of adjusted to not having everything run through him but this is what we need to see from him yeah exactly

I agree all right let's move on from one light skin point guard in the Eastern Conference to the next I want to talk about Cade Cunningham

holy shit we all knew that he was like obviously like a good player we all were like just in love with his potential what he could be just in general

but seeing the way he's elevated his game this season when it comes to the scoring specifically and also all the other things that he does on the court, magnificent. I feel like right now we're witnessing like ascend into like stardom and a player like his playing type in general, his potential is just insane when it comes to scoring and all the other stuff that he does. Right now over the last six games he's been averaging 29 points per game

while shooting 52% from the field. and I think he's shooting 46% from the three-point line. Well, obviously, playmaking at a high level. Being this lead guard initiator who also is unstoppable as a score, that was the biggest thing for his game, his shooting and all that was a little bit finicky, and it's been finicky really like over the last four or five years of his playing career in general, you know,

and seeing him actually honing on his shot in his form, figure out ways to carve and use his size and also quickness too making him so unstoppable he's ascending right now into and I'm starting to think about his potential and what really it is having conversations hi as fuck yeah I think we still he had a really great game yesterday who they play uh they beat the Knicks oh yeah again

and you know shooting has been the biggest thing this year a big difference. He's become the great elite shooter and passer that he was in college and that we were kind of waiting to see everything come together to see both those biggest skills shine. They both have this in the year. They finally translated at the highest level. Top six passer in the league, whatever it is. He's like top three and assists right now. Whatever the number you want to say is the elite passers, he's in that tier right now. And being six, seven and being an elite pull-up three-point shooter, combine that with the passing. That gives you a high floor as is. The last game against the Knicks, we saw him be really aggressive attacking in the paint and scoring

and well. Is it a coincidence that came against the Cardinals New Towns-led defense? No. I would like to see him continue to do that against other defenses that don't have cap down low, but it was a good sign to see that mount because that's the one single thing he has to improve to become like a top 10th 12 player in the league. If he can be above average at the rim, he will be a superstar. That's just a really hard thing to improve upon from where he is right now. As of right now, dude, he's been that, or he's been that specifically over the last few games. Sure. Yeah. Just by the night, we witnessed him play. Saddian? so yeah for sure for these past six games definitely my mic is hold on my headphones are

tweaking again yeah he had he had 29 points in the second half yesterday I guess it's six in the first half it's ridiculous it's ridiculous like he he was able to to turn it on and that takeover thing it satisfies the way that that kade plays satisfy satisfies really every like facet of people who just like love who just like love basketball because especially when he's scoring at the room like this because then you get you know kind of like the really uh detailed look at his scoring and it's like okay do are you able to be official at all three levels but then also you can see him take over a game whether he did yesterday and so you feed both crowds like oh no like that boy nice but they're also like his room finishing is very high like it's it's

it's good on both levels and that's exactly what you want to see just a couple nights ago within that six game stretch too he also gave minnesota 40 he gave rudy ober 42 And I think seeing his remittance again, just like, obviously it also correlates to his team being better. He was on my list. Malik Beasley was on my list because because a lot of like we've, we've described a lot of Cades like growth to not only him, but also the fact that his situation is better. But you go up and down and you look at the, you look at the roster and like, yeah, you have Tobias Harris there. You have Tim Hardaway Jr. and yes, they are like decent shooters. Tobias is shooting, he's fine. He's like 35%. Tim Hardaway Jr. He's, he's, he's, Tim Hardaway Jr.

Some nights he's going to go, like, it's crazy. I was looking at his game log, the last five games. He scored 10 points and then 26 points the game before. He was hurt, didn't play. The two games before that, 10 points, 27 points. Like, Tim Hardaway Jr. is just going to be an inconsistent guy, and it is what it is. The most consistent shooter for the pistons has been the league beastly. He's shooting, he's shooting 40% he's shooting almost 10 3s a game when you talk about opening up the floor Malik Beasley has done a lot of that

for Cade Cunningham so that's why for me he's been on, he's on my list in terms of guys that we need to talk about because that backcourt everybody's obviously helping each other and so Cade can get down and driving Kate to Malik's presence opens up those lanes for Cade to drive

so it's really good for both of them right now Cade is so good at everything besides fucking layups And I just can't, I can't believe in my head that he's going to stay bad at Layoffs forever. Surely that's going to come around and he's going to be able to weaponize his size in that way. He weaponizes his size in so many other ways that I'm like, I just know, I know he knows that's his one weakness right now. And once that comes around, the sky is the fucking limit. It got scared for a couple years because he dealt with the injury and then things didn't progress as fast as we want,

especially when we look at the guys like Ant, and Palo, who got amazing, like really fucking fast. It just took a little bit longer with him because the team situation was terrible. and he had some development to, you know, put together himself. But we're here. The path was rocky, but we're here to where we all knew he'd be. Yeah. Get him a goddamn search five, man. Get him a goddamn search five.

Let him be, let him be wide open. I want to see that for him. I just want to see him watch more Luca tape and just get really good at slowing down and finishing those layups because I think the problem why he's bad at layups is his handle was in the tightest and he doesn't have the quickest first step. So sometimes he, like, defaults into really, really tough shots down low.

He just needs to really get in the lab and learn all these, like, sneaky-ass angles that Luca does to manufacture. That's what it is, yeah. It's not even the first step shit. It's just... Ah, you like that again? This guy sucks.

Let me get him back in. Very funny. We don't care about nothing. We don't care about nothing you were saying. Shut it down. I was just glazing the Knicks, and I had to play on the Knicks, actually, next. But never mind.

I'm going to keep it to myself. You were saying it's not even the first step. It's the angles. That's what you're going to say? Yeah. And I know your games. You're not going to do it. His creativity.

But those angles and creativities are needed when you don't have the strongest first step. And I'd say his first step is bad. It's good, but it's not just like generational. And that's why Luca is so good at finishing because his isn't generational either, but he has the angles to make up for it. Katie doesn't really deep in that bag. But also Luca has the creativity. And that's like the bag around that too, which is just like all loopstick.

It all ties them together. together when it comes to knowing what it takes or having what it takes to become an elite scoring guard. They're saying the rats are still silencing you. You never really left the mud? How'd they know? So I would say, Isaac, please talk about AR-15

being so overrated, please. I'm a fan, I'm so disappointed with the inconsistency. I don't know how your takeaway from the Lakers is that AR-15 is the issue. He has been so good for them this year. I thought about putting him on this list because his playmaking has been fucking outrageous just the past two months. I'd think he's been great.

Everything else is the issue. Fucking put it on the list, bro. I don't know. I have no room my heart right now for Lakers Glaze. I love 60. They lost a second half your show against the Spuriers. It probably got worse. I turned the game off for a couple minutes left. But when I turn it off, they lost a point in the second half,

63 to 36. They fucking collapsed. That's pretty much. That was pretty much. I was like, you guys stink. Like, they're the perfect brand in mid that they're going to have weeks where they convince you the team is decent. because it is decent, but, like, they're convinced you that it's worth buying into. Then they have, like, a four-game stretch where they just, like, shit the bed against the Mavs,

shit the bed against the spurs, shit the bed against, what was the other one? There's a third terrible loss recently. I forget, but they've had three god-awful losses, and you're just like, yeah, man. Mid is going to mid. But they're great, that's only in you a dream. I love to see it, though. Make it look like a drink, Rob. I haven't even be a god-offal loss.

It can't even be a god-offal loss. Like, you know. you know what they are. So it's just like, it is what it is. At least it's entertaining. Next play I want to talk about Alex Saar.

You know, not a good rookie class. The race for rookie of the year has been dull as fuck. And Alex Saar has quietly been improving. I'll say that. I think he's still not

a good NBA player, but I think when you watch the Wizards, he shows so many flashes that I still have a lot of faith that's going to be good. the way he moves just like the moving patterns you can tell there's something there

that when they hone it together he's going to be an incredible defender offensively there still times I was actually watching the game yesterday against the Timberwolves where he ran up in semi-transition and took like a really bad turnaround mid-range jumper

like a two seconds into the shot clock and you could hear his coach scream hey don't rush it Alex and it was like super loud in the mic and that's the problem still of why he's not great yet because he's still learning that NBA stuff learning how to not rush it

how do you play in the right process offensively to get to shots that are efficient for him. But defensively, I think he's legitimately going to be very, very good. And to me, I think he hasn't been the most talked about rookie. I still think he's going to be the best rookie in this class. Yeah, that makes sense. Honestly, like, I just want, whenever I watch Alexar, offensively, I just want him to be competent. Because, like, even, like, coming into the draft,

it wasn't his offense that people were really, you know, excited about it was about his defensive potential and as long as as long as you can hit that i'm i'm cool if you end up being like you know 14 15 points per game which even you know it's kind of a lot like well not a lot but it's it's solid you can be that like nick claxon everybody if he's nick claxon with a jumper that's a fucking fantastic outcome and it's and it's fine and everybody's expectations are just so low because of how bad this this draft class was or how it was coming in you know maybe some guys turn it around and it turns out to be great but the bar is that high for you to clear and so if you can if you can figure out the one thing that you

are great at and really be able to to hone that and start to do it that's that's fine for for me yeah i think he should be a hawk man yeah it is what it is no it's not he should be a hawk they they got they got bitched out of their spot he didn't want to work out for them they should took him anyways he's he's playing center now i'm not clearly it wasn't that serious they should just pick them yeah exactly i'm not tripping too hard because okay can you imagine if you had sar jalen johnson yeah you're not tripping out let's trip a little bit it would be cool but anyways it doesn't matter he's i'm happy i'm happy as much as you hate clint yeah you would have loved to have a young center anyways watch you hit the home hit the home run clearly with him because i

think the blueprint of being so tough in the NBA today as a team you need you're like it's all dependent on your bigs, the bigs that you have. You can get away with being a mid-offensive, a mid-team in general with like, eh, point guards or top 30, 45-point yards or whatever, but it's so hard to get away with being a decent respectable team without having a center in the veins. They're just like, obviously not a Wembe,

but someone who can play great defense, has some switchability, and can be somewhat connective. You need that out of your one, at least out of one of your two bigs. and Washington has that, someone who has the potential to do that at a decent level. I really, I think I want them to get Cooper Flag.

I think they're my number one destination. I think if they have Cooper Flags, big ass blocking shots next to Saar's big ass blocking shots, it'll be really fun to watch. Those are two mobile, defensively menacing bigs under the rim. I mean, assuming Sarr continues to make this leap,

I think it's fairly safe to say Cooper Flag will be that elite defender. If they both hit their defensive ceiling, that'll be disgusting. send cooper flag to charlotte they don't deserve him i don't want to see that i don't i'm so over charlotte two years in a row they disappointed me i they're i hate charlotte do they have it they've won eight games bro that's insane charlotte fucking sucks they're like in the plane or something like that yeah over who did i put at 11 who did i say kick rocks i forget probably bulls or some

which is deserved well yeah duh i never considered the bulls yeah i'm just they they fucking suck they have no direction. Remember I said during the top 30 rankings that I was kind of like, I don't know how to rank Lamello ball. I'm not, I haven't been feeling great about that. I'll say the, I don't want to say skepticism because I think he's good.

The worries I have, they're compounding. Something I would say is that if I could go back to my list, I would definitely probably leave Lamello off and replace him with Cade in that exact spot. Yeah, sure. Well, Cade's gotten better sense. Like, yeah, Cade's also on my list. now i don't feel bad about leaving kate off because he was just starting this crazy run so

like i can't predict the fucking future but kate's definitely earned top 30 for sure kate and mowbly both kate and mowbly were both so my first cuts they both deserve to be there now yeah i think i think we've seen yeah we've definitely like seen and jaren and is jaren jaren's also i've been known jaron should have been made that y'all are just disrespecting him because he could have been i put him i put him in thirty one it's respectful get out it's okay 31's perfectly respectable. No, it's not. You're disrespecting Jaron.

Just tell me you don't like him. No, what I was is I overly respected fucking BAM out of bio and kept them on the list. I'm putting Jaron over BAM so easy now. BAM's off. Bam and Scotty Barnes are down to 31 and 32, and then Cade and Jaron get those spots. Kate's higher. K's higher, but, you know, wherever. I remember I was told Scotty was better than Brunson.

Man, that's, that's way more about Brunson than anything. Brunson's gotten so much better since I said that. That's way more about Brunson. Okay. I have a question real. I remember a couple years ago, two years ago when it was our rookie year of this podcast, I forget which NBA player we were seeing ascend to like the next level, maybe was Shay or something like that.

I don't remember. But we were talking about like how hard it is to go from like a top 20, 25-ish player to like blossom all the way into like the top 10 hell, maybe even top 6, 7. What do you guys think is like the next guy to do that? I think last year we thought it was going to be someone like Tyrese Halliborne. Who's that next guy who has like a real chance to just like surge up to that? I mean, I think the easiest guy right now will probably be Palo. Yeah, thank you.

Just because he's like he's outside of the top 10. He started the season in his five games was great. We saw how he's been playing in his return. Like the magic have they have a future and a lot of it is obviously dependent on on palo and if he can be that guy like that that number one scoring option and be everything that they need him to be he's he's easily going to climb up all of that um i mean the the easiest answer obviously for all of that was was vick and he made that leap in you know whatever off season but like in terms of guys who are probably on the outside of the top 10 right now getting in palo's

probably that guy yeah it's it's palo and probably kade i think if kate gets a big man who has some real scoring gravity. Like I keep saying I want to see him play like in a perfect world with Anthony Davis. That archetype of player who can be a real downhold threat and like force teams to not so easily throw two on the ball against Cade because they're scared of what the big men will do on a short role against a four on three situation. Once he gets that, because listen, Jalen Dern can set some screens, he's real good at that, but he's certainly not the guy I'm describing. If Cade gets that, I think he'll quickly catapult into like top 10 player talks. He'll look, he'll benefit so much from having another star just with his style of play that like

I feel like people would think I'm being disrespectful when I say I want to see him play with somebody better than him or even just someone as good as him like people hear me say that and think I'm saying Kate can't lead a team Kate isn't a one option whatever it's not even that it's just his specific style of passing and scoring is going to be so perfect playing with other stars yeah and the fact that like the fact that the guys the guys in I guess like 11 through 15 right now you think about the guys that he would have to pass in order to get there ja de mitch booker he can do that he can't he can't do that we're seeing we're seeing like the very weird season from booker we're seeing jah not be number one you know on on on that list like jai isn't

where he was two three years ago what's up some of the chat said no isa jaylindern isn't even good at setting screens he gets mad moving screen calls i i just want to throw him something i just said he can Bobby sets green. I would just say he's big. I was just saying he's big. I was joking. Shout out kid, though. And that's all the players I want to talk about.

I don't know if we got 10, but that's my whole list because we kind of had a lot of duplicates. Did I assume we'd all come a different one? All right. Well, let's see. Oh, I got one. I got one. Who we. Okay.

Although this team has been an absolute dumpster fire and they've always been in the news for consistently the wrong reason. I kid you not, whenever they're in the news, it's so something bad happening. All right. And this player resides over there in New Orleans. I want to talk about Trey Murphy. Oh, I had him written down too. Yep. I forgot about him. We can't do it. We think like too much.

Fuck. We think all the same players. Yeah, exactly. Trey Murphy has been such a bright spot. The brightest spot for the season for the New Orleans Pelicans. Of course, we all know, we all know him

in his archetype, long-ranging wing, who can who's like thrives off of his shot being able to step back even further way further than most players at his position he's an excellent shooter he can cut and all that stuff but something that's been missing from his game that didn't necessarily pivot him towards the top priority of most NBA teams and just high and be a hierarchy in general is his ability to be a creator on his own within himself and there's been a massive transformation within his own game when it comes is that. And that is very, very under-talked about for good reasons, too. Like, no one cares about the Norwich Pelicans, but it's something that we should be paying attention to.

It's also great to see. Yeah. And it's also great to see because, like, we've been saying, like, the Pelicans, like, they have to play Tray Murphy. They have to give a minutes. Oh, they're giving a minutes now. Like, you look at, you look at the minutes long. Tray Murphy's playing, like, 38, 39 minutes a night. He is out there. Right. So he's, I, I love there so much him because he is getting every opportunity that he needs to he's been dropping 30 the shot is look good like this is exactly what you would want for trade murphy and for a team like the pelicans who look like you know they're on the brink of of you know blowing it up if anybody wants to go out there and trade for trade money they locked out this is so many times one episode

chat spam it up l y5 we got to get them out the trenches i know i know go ahead and say it i'm letting them back in I don't think you're in yet. Okay. You guys are in now. Are we back in? Listen, shout out, shout out Trey Murphy.

We'll see you guys next week. We'll see you all next week. Prays for Gaelic.